5th out of 31 books
—
13 voters
Bond Girl
by
Erin Duffy
When other little girls were dreaming about becoming doctors or lawyers, Alex Garrett set her sights on conquering the high-powered world of Wall Street. And though she's prepared to fight her way into an elitist boys' club, or duck the occasional errant football, she quickly realizes she's in over her head when she's relegated to a kiddie-size folding chair with her new m...more
Hardcover, 290 pages
Published
January 24th 2012
by William Morrow
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Bond Girl: A Novel By: Erin Duffy
This book is being advertised as “The Devil Wears Prada meets Wall Street” and that is true. In fact, it is so true that if you have already read “The Devil Wears Prada” you won’t need to use any of your free time on this book. This book is not “fresh”, not “hip” nor is it even remotely funny. It was sad and depressing and you could see the ending coming a mile away, and no I don’t mean the financial crash. The only thing you may find interesting about this book...more
This book is being advertised as “The Devil Wears Prada meets Wall Street” and that is true. In fact, it is so true that if you have already read “The Devil Wears Prada” you won’t need to use any of your free time on this book. This book is not “fresh”, not “hip” nor is it even remotely funny. It was sad and depressing and you could see the ending coming a mile away, and no I don’t mean the financial crash. The only thing you may find interesting about this book...more
I enjoyed this overall but I had issues with the way the relationship between Alex and Will was portrayed. I'm not saying Will is not an a**hole but I just felt so uneasy watching (or should I say reading) Alex pining after him, being portrayed as this dumb ass who didn't suspect that she was being played and then acting as if her life was over in the aftermath. Seeing as she's pretty sweet and sensible, I guess I can forgive her for this so-called romantic stupidity. I was so proud of her for s...more
Working at B&N, I often have access to ARC copies of books. It is one of the perks I enjoy immensely. I spied a cover of a book a few weeks back in the break room while eating my Lean Cuisine Ravioli (*Now without glass shards!) It had a black stiletto ensconced on top of The Wall Street Journal. So, I decided to give it a go. The protagonist is Alex, a twenty three year old who has dreamed of a career in finance since she was eight years old. So, right off the bat, I could not relate to her...more
Review by Megan Miller
Erin Duffy’s “Bond Girl” does little to shed light on the mechanisms behind the financial collapse in 2008, although it does uphold the copious clichés about the years of excess leading to the downfall. Snapshots of sexual harassment, over-indulgence and trigger-happy traders are all par for the course in this oft-told “Devil Wears Prada” version of a female analyst’s first years on Wall Street.
While at first glorifying the world of Cromwell Pierce, the imagined mega-bank w...more
Erin Duffy’s “Bond Girl” does little to shed light on the mechanisms behind the financial collapse in 2008, although it does uphold the copious clichés about the years of excess leading to the downfall. Snapshots of sexual harassment, over-indulgence and trigger-happy traders are all par for the course in this oft-told “Devil Wears Prada” version of a female analyst’s first years on Wall Street.
While at first glorifying the world of Cromwell Pierce, the imagined mega-bank w...more
Originally on my blog: http://ilovedthisbook.blogspot.com
Ok, so I'm currently a little burned out on the silly YA books that I have picked up as of late so I found myself on a blog that reviews books about the older gals. I spotted a rave review of Bond Girl, so I picked it up at the library. This was an interesting read for me, because it doesn't seem to have any real plot development. It is more just random anecdotes that author Duffy might have experienced herself while working on Wall Street...more
Ok, so I'm currently a little burned out on the silly YA books that I have picked up as of late so I found myself on a blog that reviews books about the older gals. I spotted a rave review of Bond Girl, so I picked it up at the library. This was an interesting read for me, because it doesn't seem to have any real plot development. It is more just random anecdotes that author Duffy might have experienced herself while working on Wall Street...more
Jul 17, 2012
Lydia Laceby
rated it
5 of 5 stars
Shelves:
5-star-must-read,
contemporary-women-s-fiction
Originally reviewed at Novel Escapes
When Bond Girl popped up in my mailbox I had to read the cover to discover what it was about. Isn’t this cover fabulous!?! I’ve never been a huge shoe fanatic (somehow that’s changing – maybe all this reading about shoes in the last ten years?), but I couldn’t wait to crack this one. A girl who takes on Wall Street? In six inch stiletto’s? Bring it on!
I loved this book. Erin Duffy has a fresh, fun voice. She puts a new spin on the New York City girl – even if...more
When Bond Girl popped up in my mailbox I had to read the cover to discover what it was about. Isn’t this cover fabulous!?! I’ve never been a huge shoe fanatic (somehow that’s changing – maybe all this reading about shoes in the last ten years?), but I couldn’t wait to crack this one. A girl who takes on Wall Street? In six inch stiletto’s? Bring it on!
I loved this book. Erin Duffy has a fresh, fun voice. She puts a new spin on the New York City girl – even if...more
I was excited to read this book. I work in (and love) the financial services industry, warts and all. Though I’ve never worked a trading desk I did spend a decade in investment banking (her crack about bankers being too into the details, like caring way too hard about the color of a font, is funny because it’s true). My fixed income knowledge is limited to what I had to learn for the Series 7 but, still, financial instruments fascinate me, bonds, equities, whatever. Add in a few stellar reviews...more
Jul 10, 2012
Mιss •kαthєяίиє• Τhε Emεrαℓd Pяίиcεss®
rated it
3 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
In fact it is only 2 and a half stars. I don't know why, but it left me with a bittersweet taste.
Scratch that. I know why I didn't like it that much. First, even though the author tried really hard, the similarities with
are there. I got the exact same feeling at the end, that of something incomplete. At the duty free bookshop at the airport they were promoting it and I expected something better. The back story was quite misleading in my opinion. Secondly, it remimded me of another book,
....more
Scratch that. I know why I didn't like it that much. First, even though the author tried really hard, the similarities with
are there. I got the exact same feeling at the end, that of something incomplete. At the duty free bookshop at the airport they were promoting it and I expected something better. The back story was quite misleading in my opinion. Secondly, it remimded me of another book,
....more
First chick-lit book I have read in a long time. And a great one to jump back in with! While it had all the typicalness of the old school book, it didn't end how they normally do. This book was definitely more work related, which I liked a lot, plus it was about an industry that I don't know much about, so who knows how true to life it was. Whatever, I didn't really care too much. There were like 3 too many people in this story, so I kept getting confused with the names of the people she works w...more
3 1/2 Stars. The author has a very engaging voice, and the trip through the workplace from hell to the financial meltdown was interesting.
What I found missing was the personal. Alex chooses to work on Wall Street because her father does, and she has wanted to do with since she was a little girl. But when she does, actually, get a job on Wall Street, we don't see her communicating with or even thinking about her father very much.
When she strikes up a workplace romance, I wasn't even sure that she...more
What I found missing was the personal. Alex chooses to work on Wall Street because her father does, and she has wanted to do with since she was a little girl. But when she does, actually, get a job on Wall Street, we don't see her communicating with or even thinking about her father very much.
When she strikes up a workplace romance, I wasn't even sure that she...more
I know NOTHING about the financial world, ask the other half. He works in finances and I generally look at him like he is speaking jibberish when he talks about investments and what he does.
Here's what I know about finances. I am a librarian, I get paid and I buy more books after I pay the bills. I picked up Erin Duffy's book because it seemed like interesting chick-lit, but I will admit I was intimidated by the premise of a twenty-something female who wears shoes I just think about. And especi...more
Here's what I know about finances. I am a librarian, I get paid and I buy more books after I pay the bills. I picked up Erin Duffy's book because it seemed like interesting chick-lit, but I will admit I was intimidated by the premise of a twenty-something female who wears shoes I just think about. And especi...more
The cover of Erin Duffy's debut novel, Bond Girl, is striking and catches the eye right away. A black stiletto with a blood red sole placed on top of The Wall Street Journal newspaper. So if you thought by the title alone that this book was about a female spy, the cover sets you straight- it's about a woman working in the world of finance.
We meet Alex, a twenty-something who works in the bond department at Cromwell Pierce, "one of Wall Street's biggest powerhouses". She describes an overheard en...more
We meet Alex, a twenty-something who works in the bond department at Cromwell Pierce, "one of Wall Street's biggest powerhouses". She describes an overheard en...more
I didn't hate this, but I was frustrated by a lot of it. The main character was pretty stupid, like any 23-24 year old, I guess. I lived in NYC and had my first job at that age as well, and I'm sure I made equally dumb decisions...I just don't want to read about them. I liked the insight into the world of finance and the reality(?) of what it's like for a woman on Wall Street. The ending made me ragey because 1) the character hinted at a new career, but didn't say what that career was. Was the c...more
I was so excited to read this after reading the review for "Bond Girl" in Entertainment Weekly last month. Being a financial analyst myself, I was interested to see the interworkings of Wall Street from a young female's point of view.
I enjoyed reading this book, although it was more fluffy than I had originally thought. I enjoyed the financial jargon and thought it was great that things were explained in the book (for those that aren't familiar with the financial field). I found myself rooting a...more
I enjoyed reading this book, although it was more fluffy than I had originally thought. I enjoyed the financial jargon and thought it was great that things were explained in the book (for those that aren't familiar with the financial field). I found myself rooting a...more
In a word - hilarious. I did not expect a fictional account of Wall Street to be so incredibly funny. Duffy's character, Alex Garrett, has achieved her dream of working on Wall Street. Every morning, she puts on her high heels and treks off to a good 'ole boys club where she makes an incredible effort to prove herself. At first, I feared this was going to be some touchy-feely 'girl power' book and fortunately, I was wrong.
Instead, this is a character to whom both men and women can relate. From t...more
Instead, this is a character to whom both men and women can relate. From t...more
You know you've read an excellent book when you can wait to tell someone about it and all the best parts of the book. Only in this one, the entire book is filled with the best parts. Bond Girl by Erin Duffy is the story of Alex Garrett, who has dreamed of a career in the finance industry since she was eight, following in her father's footsteps. Only this is a predominantly male industry and not that many women find the success she is hoping for.
She finally attends college hoping that the busines...more
She finally attends college hoping that the busines...more
Alex Garriet has dreamed about following into her father’s footsteps and one day working in Wall Street. She graduates college and lands a prestigious internship at Cromwell Pierce’s sales floor, but she is not prepared for the reality of life on “The Street.” This is not a normal working environment. It’s the high octane, big money, world of finance where everything seems to happen at warp speed. People run down halls, shout instead of speak and pass the time playing fraternity type jokes on ea...more
Erin Duffy wows us in “Bond Girl” with her wicked humor, her wit and sense of honor and duty. She is a new voice in literature to be reckoned with and her first novel has set a bar that many will not be able to match.
Alex Garrett has always been a tomboy; having more fun playing sports with the boys in the neighborhood than hanging with her girl friends. So when she decides to follow her father’s footsteps and enter the financial world of Wall Street, no one is really surprised. Her Mom was the...more
Alex Garrett has always been a tomboy; having more fun playing sports with the boys in the neighborhood than hanging with her girl friends. So when she decides to follow her father’s footsteps and enter the financial world of Wall Street, no one is really surprised. Her Mom was the...more
One day when Alex Garrett was eight years old, her investment banker father took her to work with him. From that day on, Alex’s ambition was to work in “the Business” on Wall Street. When she landed her first job after college with a prestigious Wall Street trading firm, she was thrilled. Star struck she entered the building on her first day excited to begin. She knew she would have to work hard and work her way up the ranks of bond traders but she didn’t expect to have a tiny metal folding chai...more
I’ve read a ton of books like this one, but I still love them. Alex Garrett is a young girl that dreams of working on Wall Street after visiting her Dad’s work as an investment banker. She is smart, attractive and a go-getter!
Alex faces the traditional problems women go through moving from college to the work world. She is determined to make her mark in a male-driven profession. The men she deals with are funny and helpful while the woman that Alex thinks will help her is the only person that i...more
Alex faces the traditional problems women go through moving from college to the work world. She is determined to make her mark in a male-driven profession. The men she deals with are funny and helpful while the woman that Alex thinks will help her is the only person that i...more
The "Bond" in the title does not refer to "James Bond" but to "Bond Street" or Wall Street. Ever since she was a little girl, Alex Garrett has dreamed to follow in her father's footsteps and enter the world of high powered finance on Wall Street. She fulfills her dreams when at 23 she is hired to work in bond sales at Cromwell Pierce. This is still very much, as the book says, "an elitist boys' club" and she has to work extremely hard to gain her "rightful" place among those boys who seem more l...more
I really, really liked this book. I was intrigued by the synopsis but wasn't sure how a book about a young woman who's dream is to become a bond trader. Different strokes for different folks and all that but that world just does not appeal to me. Duffy makes the world of bond traders seem almost glamorous (almost being the operative word; I'm still not ready to move to Wall Street). You definitely get to see why Alex is so drawn to that world though.
Alex is a girl after my own heart. She's know...more
Alex is a girl after my own heart. She's know...more
Alex Garrett grows up dreaming of working in the financial district on Wall Street. Upon graduating from the University of Virginia, she's offered her dream job with one of the major financial players on The Street and eagerly accepts.
Only the reality turns out to be far different than the dream.
I'd heard a lot of buzz for Bond Girl both on-line and in mainstream reviews. Curious about the book, I put it on reserve and decided I'd give it a try.
And it was OK. It wasn't great but it wasn't terrib...more
Only the reality turns out to be far different than the dream.
I'd heard a lot of buzz for Bond Girl both on-line and in mainstream reviews. Curious about the book, I put it on reserve and decided I'd give it a try.
And it was OK. It wasn't great but it wasn't terrib...more
I just needed an airplane book. Because of the decent review it received from EW I was expecting it to be better than it was. I'm not expecting War and Peace with these kinds of books but could I have got a little more emotion from the protag other than crying, constant confusion and out-of-nowhere bitchiness? She kept saying she wasn't a crier and then proceeded to describe herself crying five times. She worked with a bunch of pigs; one bad moment she shrugs it off, the next she jumps down some...more
Embarassingly, I had gotten some interest in this thinking, based solely on title and buzz, that this was sort of a reverse Bond book. Sort of like a chick-lit-spy-thriller.
It's not.
A better comparison, as made more or less everywhere else at this point, is The Devil Wears Prada on Wall Street. It's really not a great comparison - Prada was better, and it simply boils the idea down to "female protagonist in male-dominated field novel," which really tells us more about those who are making the c...more
It's not.
A better comparison, as made more or less everywhere else at this point, is The Devil Wears Prada on Wall Street. It's really not a great comparison - Prada was better, and it simply boils the idea down to "female protagonist in male-dominated field novel," which really tells us more about those who are making the c...more
Bond
by
Erin Duffy
Wow...I did not know what to expect from this book but ultimately it was brilliant.
I gasped at the inner workings of Wall Street and this investment firm.
Alex...main character and star of the show...goes to work for this firm right out of college. She is smart, clever and ill prepared for what it is like to work with the big boys...
She is renamed Girlie and is the new face of indentured labor in this firm.
Her job description ranges from picking up and carrying back lunches to buy...more
by
Erin Duffy
Wow...I did not know what to expect from this book but ultimately it was brilliant.
I gasped at the inner workings of Wall Street and this investment firm.
Alex...main character and star of the show...goes to work for this firm right out of college. She is smart, clever and ill prepared for what it is like to work with the big boys...
She is renamed Girlie and is the new face of indentured labor in this firm.
Her job description ranges from picking up and carrying back lunches to buy...more
I received a copy of Bond Girl in exchange for an honest review. First off let’s talk the cover. Loved it! Are all girls wired to just adore pictures of shoes or what? Second – loved the plot. It’s not often we get a female perspective of a “Street” worker – and by that I mean Wall Street. Alex Garrett knew from quite the young age that she wanted to follow in her father’s footsteps and conquer the illustrious Wall Street. She lands a job at Cromwell Pierce, of the best brokerage firms on the St...more
This is totally "The Devil Wears Prada" on Wall Street, though I liked this novel much more than "Devil." Alex, a Wall St. bonds salesperson, must deal with the financial fallout of 2008 like the rest, and while the book does not go into too much depth about the '08 crash, it does realistically depict the fear and uncertainty that Wall St. employees were dealing with--like the rest of the nation. The book does not wrap things up into a "pat" ending, leaving things very open (for a sequel?) but a...more
A quick shortcut by which to communicate the overall feel and tone of Erin Duffy's debut novel, Bond Girl would be to say that it is something like a combination of Wall Street meets The Devil Wears Prada. It is unfair to Ms Duffy to characterize her book that way, however, as the comparison could be taken to imply that Ms Duffy consciously combined aspects of those two stories to come up with hers. All thoughts along those lines should be banished—Bond Girl is a fresh, original take on the “plu...more
I had high hopes for this book but they didn't pan out. If you want a cliched book with little chuckles, then pick this one up. It's the standard girl gets out of college, finds a demanding job with a horrific boss and then stumbles around making mistakes, being abused mentally and drinking great amounts of alcohol. Where have we seen this story before? Let me count the books.
This is set on Wall Street which I assume is to make it more interesting. It didn't to me. The financial talk was incomp...more
This is set on Wall Street which I assume is to make it more interesting. It didn't to me. The financial talk was incomp...more
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